Thanks for the taking the time to do this, I would of loved to but I couldn't justify spending $400 on a custom RasPi.

I've heard it said that the 21inc computer was likely a proof of concept sort of deal to show the Bitcoin community and investors that they have a viable business model. I think down the line we will see some pretty cool things from 21inc, but their first Bitcoin computer was not meant to be anything special, more like a trial run for more complex products coming in the future.

"The true sign of intelligence is not knowledge but imagination" -Albert Einstein

Thanks for the taking the time to do this, I would of loved to but I couldn't justify spending $400 on a custom RasPi.

I've heard it said that the 21inc computer was likely a proof of concept sort of deal to show the Bitcoin community and investors that they have a viable business model. I think down the line we will see some pretty cool things from 21inc, but their first Bitcoin computer was not meant to be anything special, more like a trial run for more complex products coming in the future.

The thing I still don't get is they were the ones who talked about putting chips in everyday items. That was a big part of their PR I thought was pointed twords that.

And then to go to a custom RPI... that just is not really going in existing product. I mean even if they made topper and just sold topper for RPI2 I see that as more putting on a everyday device.

I still think this is just so they can say they have a product and it's shipping. So when they go to raise money they say "Yes we are shipping miners". I don't see this as much more then proof of concept. And the concept is not worth the 400 to me personally.

I think for the well seasoned bitcoiner/miner, of course this isn't for them....but for the newbs, say my coworkers, gym heads, fantasy football friends i blabb bitcoin about 24/7 ....this is a great way for them to see bitcoin in action. The whole understanding of P2P nodes, currency, and communication is pretty damn awesome and jaw dropping to see if peeps start using this. Think about it say a few decades ago when explaining to someone how computers were all networked globally to download/share music....it took several years for people to understand the concept, and now that structure is being used today and the technology is imprinted all over the internet.

I think for the well seasoned bitcoiner/miner, of course this isn't for them....but for the newbs, say my coworkers, gym heads, fantasy football friends i blabb bitcoin about 24/7 ....this is a great way for them to see bitcoin in action. The whole understanding of P2P nodes, currency, and communication is pretty damn awesome and jaw dropping to see if peeps start using this. Think about it say a few decades ago when explaining to someone how computers were all networked globally to download/share music....it took several years for people to understand the concept, and now that structure is being used today and the technology is imprinted all over the internet.

They would be so much better off with a compac, or U3 even. It would just be so much cheaper with a RPI2 and teach just as much if not more as they would learn to compile depending on what OS they choose on RPI.

But the price tag makes this not for new people. I mean they could get a S3 a ton cheaper and use a S3 to mine to learn. There are much more economical ideas for someone to learn mining. It's hard to justify this one unless you get it just as a toy to play with.

I think for the well seasoned bitcoiner/miner, of course this isn't for them....but for the newbs, say my coworkers, gym heads, fantasy football friends i blabb bitcoin about 24/7 ....this is a great way for them to see bitcoin in action. The whole understanding of P2P nodes, currency, and communication is pretty damn awesome and jaw dropping to see if peeps start using this. Think about it say a few decades ago when explaining to someone how computers were all networked globally to download/share music....it took several years for people to understand the concept, and now that structure is being used today and the technology is imprinted all over the internet.

They would be so much better off with a compac, or U3 even. It would just be so much cheaper with a RPI2 and teach just as much if not more as they would learn to compile depending on what OS they choose on RPI.

But the price tag makes this not for new people. I mean they could get a S3 a ton cheaper and use a S3 to mine to learn. There are much more economical ideas for someone to learn mining. It's hard to justify this one unless you get it just as a toy to play with.

Agreed. This is not something I would recommend to somebody just getting into Bitcoin. I think the real market for something like this would be in software development. It provides a working, stand alone core client that a person could use for developing third party applications based on Bitcoin

"The true sign of intelligence is not knowledge but imagination" -Albert Einstein

the 21co patent is not wrong, they did literally hard code their mining address into the chip, external work has their coinbase address stuck on the end no matter what you send to the chip

I was expecting a lot more, it's just a few python libraries and a centralized API.

Are they doing ECDSA signing of the coinbase transaction in the hardware? Or do they just perform a bitstring replacement in the coinbase transaction and then re-hash it with SHA-256, also in the hardware?